Specific accessories or garments can make or break a character. One perfect example? The bespoke yellow banana boots designed and made for Scottish comedian, musician, singer, presenter and actor Billy Connolly, also known in his native Scotland, by the nickname "The Big Yin" ("The Big One"). The boots were made by Glasgow pop artist Edmund Smith in 1975.
As the notes accompanying this item on display at the People's Palace in Glasgow, explain, Connolly had ordered a pair of size 9 'bananas' for a new show. On completion of the first banana, though, Smith warned him that the second one would not be identical, so the second banana was given a sort of "designer status" with a blue Fyffes label.
The boots - with their tops peeled and the cloth skin hanging down - became Connolly's trademark accessory for a while. They made their first appearance on stage at the Music Hall in Aberdeen in August 1975, the same year when the documentary, "Big Banana Feet", was filmed.
There was actually another key piece that later on became part of Connolly's on-stage attire, a custom-made black T-shirt with a shirt-tail (the first one was by English designer Steven King) that he wore since the 1980s.
If the boots made you smile (as much as they made me smile when I first saw them in the '90s as a student in Glasgow), though, and if you're still enjoying your Easter holidays and you're looking for something fun and banana related to listen to, check out Ben sa Tumba & son Orchestre's exotic classics - "Banane" and "Cou-Couche Panier" - performed in the 1960s by Ben Bakrim (aka Ben et sa Tumba) and currently available on Kutmusic.
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